Juice Boost

Lets get on the juicing craze for a minute. It’s healthy, it’s fresh, tastes great, good for the body, soul and the pocket and these are good enough reasons to start juicing. But what got me motivated this weekend was the cutest 6-pack of mini milk bottles I picked up at the dollar store. I wanted to roll up my sleeves and start a production line of my favourite fruit and veg juice :)

There are so many amazing juice combinations, it’s really what you make of it – or what you want out of it. There’s also an endless variety of super foods you can incorporate into your juices: protein and berry powders, chia and flax seeds are amazing additions. Honey and agave nectar are natural sweeteners if you have a sweet tooth like me.

Rather than a traditional juicer, I use the turbo charged blenders and dilute the mixture with water if need be. This helps prevent wasting the pulp where all the nutritious bits are. Here are my top 3 juice recipes:

THE GREEN JUICE

Green juices are my favourites. I love the fresh smell and the taste. As with any juice, you can certainly incorporate your preferred fruits and veggies in. For this particular mix, I added lime and mint to make it more refreshing and used kiwi and green apple for the sweet factor. Fresh ginger also goes really well with this juice, if you’d like to give it a nice kick.

RED JUICES

Red Juices are great if you prefer sweeter juices as there are many sweet fruits you can throw into the mix. Ripe berries and watermelon, as well as red apples and plums taste delicious and of course we can’t forget the benefits of antioxidants they contain. For this particular mix, I add a tablespoon of acai berry powder when I want an extra boost of antioxidant.

THE SMOOTHIE

This Smoothie is probably the most decadent of the 3 recipes but it’s still very healthy and good for you. I use a mix of almond milk and coconut milk for this. It helps blend the smoothie into a creamy consistency and the coconut milk transforms it into a tropical delight. If the mango or the banana isn’t sweet enough, I add either honey or agave nectar. This is a great blend to use with protein powders.

Juice recipes are so flexible (and personal) that I didn’t include measurements. It’s a “taste as you go” kind of process whether you prefer certain fruits and vegetables to be the core ingredient, how much sweet you like and of course the additional vitamins you need.

If you have any favourite juice recipes, please let me know in the comments section,